


Strange and Untrue

by Enchantable



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, Drift Bond, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Major Character Injury, Panic, Post-Canon, Requited Love, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-28
Updated: 2013-08-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 22:32:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/945420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchantable/pseuds/Enchantable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako forces a semi-conscious Raleigh into the escape pod, giving up her oxygen to make sure he gets out alive. Raleigh wakes up moments before his pod opens and he finds himself on the surface. Alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strange and Untrue

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Prompt: instead of Mako's oxygen being compromised, it's Raleigh's so she gives him hers and launches his escape pod. Whether or not she survives is completely up to you. I just neeeeeeeed me some panicked/terrified Raleigh when he realizes what she's done for him. Bonus Points if Chuck is anywhere in this fic because I love me some egotistical jerk with daddy issues ;)

He comes to seconds before the pod breaks the surface. 

It’s not slow or gentle, it’s a jerked reaction. He goes from semi-conscious to conscious in a second. His mind knows exactly where he is, he can feel the slopes of the pod on either side of him and the light is getting brighter and brighter until the pod slams to the surface. The top and the dye canisters blow at exactly the same time. 

He doesn’t remember getting to his feet. 

Truly he doesn’t. Not until he adjusts his weight so he doesn’t fall the hell off the pod. And he doesn’t remember ripping off his helmet until he sees the light bounce off the rim as it sinks below the waves. His heart is pounding as he stares down at the green dyed water spreading out from the edges of the pod. 

_No_

_No no no_

_nonononono_

It’s a single horrified thought that pounds in his head over and over again as he stares down at the water. Both of his hands are covering his oxygen port. He knows that it was damaged. He can practically feel his suit burning the new circuits into his skin. Or he would if the panic wasn’t the first thing in his mind. Because he’s up here. He’s up here and Mako’s down there and if his oxygen was damaged and he isn’t unconscious that means Mako gave hers up to save him. 

Mako pushed him into an escape pod to save him.

Which means she’s down there still. She’s down there in Gipsy, in another fucking world and she’s going to finish the mission. She’s going to save them all. She’s doing his stupid plan because that’s what happens when people go in his head. They do the stupid things he’s supposed to do. She’s doing it. She’s somewhere below his feet with no oxygen and a nuclear bomb all around her. 

The air slams from his lungs like he’s been punched.

She might not be coming back. No, she probably isn’t coming back. She’s going to die below his feet. Yancy’s a hole in his head, his last moments a terrible howl in the back of his head. But Mako’s calm, her soft words it’s alright, everything’s okay now. I just have to fall. Anyone can fall—that doesn’t go to his head. It goes to his heart, to the fucking center of his being. Because she isn’t afraid. She’s determined and stubborn and so incredible and it should be him dying below the waves. But it’s her. She is—was—his copilot and she was not going to let him die. Even if he felt her mind grab at his just a second longer before the escape pod discharged.

”Come on,” he grits out looking down at the ocean, “come on—” he shudders, blinking the world back in to focus as he looks around at the ocean, “come on—Mako!” 

He shouts her name. 

There’s no chance in hell for her to hear him but he does it anyway. He screams her name because she can’t die. Their last moments can’t be her pushing him in to an escape pod. They can’t be. He knows about the unfairness of life. He knows how cruel the world can be. But this can’t happen. They can’t say goodbye like this. She has to be in an escape pod, she has to come to the surface. 

Silence is his only answer. 

 

The pod rocks violently as he drops to his knees. His fingers dig in to the dents in the padding designed to accommodate the ports in his suit. Drops fall on to the gauntlets of his armor as he chokes, fighting the urge to fold in on himself. The pain is so much worse. He knows he’s patched together, holding on by a prayer and her steady hands. Now it feels like he’s shattering all over again. Except instead of his soul being torn in two it’s his heart. 

She can’t be gone. She trusted him to get in a Jaeger again, she pushed him to be the person she knew he could be. Mako’s spent the past years putting Gipsy back together. He knows the reasoning of pilots dying in their Jaegers. Knows it damn well. Just like he knows that’s where he should have died. There’s a reason he didn’t think about the future and spent the past years on the top of a stupid fucking wall. 

He sees the last image she sent before the drop in his head. He can feel the echo of their hanbo’s in his hands, he can feel the smile on his face. The true, dopey grin they both know he’d give when she threw him and the way she would smile in return as he tugged her down. As he wrapped his arms around her. As their lips finally met. At how he’d laugh because his hanbo would be long forgotten but she’d hold on to hers because Sensei taught her better than that. 

He wants that. He wants that more than he knows how to put in to words. He wants to throw himself in to the ocean after the Jaeger and sink until he finds it. Until he finds her. Except Mako’s a great pilot and he knows the Breach is closed. He could get to the bottom of the ocean and she wouldn’t be there. She’d be in another world. There isn’t even going to be a body to bury. 

The sound of something erupting from the ocean is almost lost to his own desperate gasps.

He’s in the water before the dye packs burst. 

Well, they don’t burst because even he can see the pod’s dinged up. His armor feels like lead as he kicks over to where the pod’s bobbing. He barely feels it as he grabs the handle and hauls himself up, shaking the water out of his eyes. His entire body is on overload but his hands are steady as he grabs the clasps and undoes them, ripping the lid off the pod. 

"Mako!" he shouts her name again.

She’s still. 

His hands grab the manual release of the helmet and he undoes it, throwing it to the side. Her features are serene and he can see how pale her lips are even before he puts his cheek near her mouth. Nothing but the breeze touches his skin. His fingers jam into her neck and he can feel a flutter, barely detectable through the polymer of their suits. 

"Hang on," he hisses through his teeth, "you hear me Mako? Just—hang on."

She’s small and there’s enough room for him to move, careful not to disturb the pod. He tilts her chin back and presses his fingers to her nose, closing his mouth over hers and forcing air in to her lungs. He sees her chest rise and pulls his head back, counting before bending down and forcing another breath through her lungs. 

He wants to shout her name but he can’t. All his words before and now he can’t even get one out. Everything in him is focused on breathing for her, on keeping her going until the medics get there. She’s survived Cat. 5 Kaiju and the anteverse, he’s not going to let her die in an escape pod because she gave up her oxygen for him. 

His mouth is still around hers when she coughs. 

He rips his mouth away and turns her on her side as she coughs and then drags in a lungful of air. Everything in him is still running on overdrive, he can still feel the adrenaline pounding through him as the coughs turn to gasps. She has to push her shoulder up and back before he remembers to move his arm. She eases herself up and looks at him and she smiles. 

"You’re alright," she says, relief on her face. 

He’s got her against him before the swear’s left his lips. 

She clings to him, weakly at first and then tighter and tighter. He doesn’t care as her hair brushes his cheek and their armor clinks together. He can feel her breathing and he knows her heart’s beating and she’s alive. She’s alive and he wonders if it’s possible for someone to pass out from elation alone. They loosen their hold on each other as the choppers fly overhead. 

"Guess that’s our ride back," he says and his voice sound strangled even to his own ears. 

"Guess so," she echoes and hers is hoarse.

They look at each other, arms still around each other, hands echoing positions. It’s like they’re still in each other’s heads and like they aren’t all at the same time. It’s confusing and with each passing moment Raleigh thinks he can feel the adrenaline draining out of him and the new pains setting in. But the paleness is gone from Mako’s lips. His thumb brushes against them just to be sure. But when they press to the polymer of his suit, the color returns instantly.

It takes him a second longer than it should to lean forward and replace his thumb with his lips. 

They aren’t in the Kwoon, there are no hanbos and they haven’t been sparring. The metal of their armor gets in the way and they have to adjust for the pod because at this point it’s a miracle Raleigh’s the only one whose gone swimming. It’s different from their imagined first kiss, even though Raleigh has every intention of doing that one too. But their mouths are perfect together and it feels like a whole new way of being close. 

It’s different but she’s smiling when they kiss and there’s nothing that can take the dopey grin from his face.


End file.
